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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



rhe FEAST of THALARCHUS 



Copyright^ igoi^ by 
Conde Benoist Fallen 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two CoHiEd Received 

OCT. 12 1901 

Copyright entry 
CLASS 6VXXC. No. 



COPY d. 



.^.^ 






Press of 
George H. Ellis 
Boston^ U.S.J. 



( , c c,c 



c c c ' 

C C C C t t 



TO THE MEMORY OF 
Mr MOTHER 



rhe FEAST of THALARCHUS 



PersoncB. 



THALARCHUS, citizen of Antioch. 

SIMEON, the Stylite. 

THAIS, an hetsera. 

XENAKES, slave of Thalarchus. 

ANTIPHON, ^ 

CRITIAS, 

CHARMIDES, 

GLAUCO, 

HERMOGENES, 



. 



guests at the Feast. 



Demons, Fauns, Dryads, Naiads, Silenus, Pan, Bacchus 
and Bacchanals. 

Place, Antioch. Time, first half of fifth century. 



Vlll 



THE FEAST OF THALARCHUS 

Enter Thalaechus and Xenares. 

Thalarchus. 
Is all prepared, Xenares? 

Xenares, 

Ay, my lord. 

Thalarchus, 
The guests all summoned ? 

Xenares. 

As thou didst bid, 'tis done. 

Thalarchus, 
And Thais, too ? 

Xenares, 

My lord, she waits thee now. 

Thalarchus, 
Now Antioch shall boast a feast to make 
The gorgeous riot of Nero's groaning board 
A peasant's fare in meanness. Ay, the gods 
Themselves, if ancient legends speak the truth, 
Shall look with jealous eye from their high seats 

1 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Upon its splendid prodigality. 

For I have summoned earth and sea and air 

To yield me of their choicest ; wines precious 

As gold^ tanged with a hundred fiery suns 

To make the blood run wanton in the veins ; 

The rarest fish that winnow in the deep 

To edge with novel savour palates staled 

With years of feasting ; daintiest meats unknown 

In this our Antioch before^ to spur 

The jaded appetites of ancient revellers ] 

Succulent dishes dressed by so rare art 

That sated gluttons shall hunger at the sight ; 

Such subtle witcheries for eye and ear 

That they shall swoon with giddy surfeit ; Beauty 

So prodigal of all her charms that Venus' 

Self would stale upon the general eye ; 

Music to ravish the amazed sense 

With sweeter melodies than Orpheus blew 

In Pluto's ear to charm his wife from hell ; 

Ay^ such a feast as eats a fortune up 

At one swift mouthful, as death swallows men ! 

'Tis 'gainst stale Fortune's self I throw the die 

And scorn her, having basked within her smile 

To dull satiety ; and, scorning, court 

The oft-reputed thunders of her frown 

In sheer despite of her long blandishments. 

Let go what will, let come what may, I fling 

2 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Defiance in her face ! Let houses^ lands 

And slaves and ships, the substance of my all, 

Be swallowed in this prodigality, 

As thunderous earthquake and the roaring Avave 

Engulf a prideful city by the sea, 

That leaves no stone to mark its ancient place. 

Xenares. 
My lord, the hour approaches for the feast. 

Wilt robe % 

Thalarchus. 

Yea, put on the festal garb, 
The one I purchased from the Damascene, 
The rarest tissue of the patient loom. 
Spun from the purest wool in all the East, 
White as the unearthed snow and delicate 
As petals of the rose ! How soft and light ! 
Meet for the limbs of the Olympian gods 
When they recline at their ambrosial feasts ! 
How elegant in its simplicity ! 
Unblemished by the taint of broidery. 
Yet richer by the pureness of its woof 
Than were it gilded inches deep in gold 
And seamed with all the pearls of gorgeous Ind. 
Xenares, bring the Memphian jewel, too, — 
'Twill fit with this most rich simplicity, — 
A single stone white with Promethean flame 

3 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Gathered within the bosom of the earth 

When first 'twas stolen from heaven, and angry 

Jove 
Eavened the firmament with sulphurous bolts 
Against the callous thief. Hear how I talk, 
Xenares, babbling a fable of the gods, 
The gruesome memory of an ancient lie 
Spun in the nurseries of the world, when men 
As yet were children. So my humour trips — 
The gem ! Hand it me. Zeus, how it burns ! 
White as the sun's white core, yet cold as death ! 
It was — the Jew I bought it of so said, 
The lying trafficker — a sacred stone, 
That once on mother Isis' holy breast 
Burned 'neath the veil, when men yet worshipt 
And bowed with bated breath before her shrine. 
A pretty fable this of mother earth ; 
The gem within her bosom 'neath the veil 
The easy symbol of the unquarried stone 
Within the darkness of the uncaverned soil. 
Ere men, awakened to the lust of things. 
Had bared her treasures to the eyes of greed. 
Fables, fables, to hide the shamefaced truth 
And gloze the ugliness of our own deeds. 
Lest we grow frightened at our naked selves ! 
How prone to invent and hold ourselves excused, 
And out of all our baser part erect 

4 



The FEAST of THALARCHUS 

Divinities ! I've had my day of faith, 

And hold but wraiths of wasted dreams. I've 

run 
The gamut up and down, and down again, 
To find but jangling discords at the close. 
Wealth has been mine, and its sure offshoot, 

power. 
To make men pliant to my sovereign will 
And servants of my every nod. A man, 
I' ve sated every appetite ; a god, 
I've bent my little world to every whim ; 
Yet bankrupt of all joy I end at last. 
Life staled and shattered like a rotted gourd. 
Out on it all ! I'll woo me beggary now, 
And from her withered womb beget the babe, 
Content, to suckle at her barren breasts 
And fatten on their emptiness. 
'Tis said that little want is slender care, 
And lentils feast a witless appetite. 

Xenares, 

My lord, the guests are all arrived and wait 
Upon thy coming. 

Thalarchus, 

Well, I come. Place thou 
The chaplet on my brow, that I go crowned, 

5 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

The sovereign of a feast beyond all dreams. 
Ye blushes of our common clay, how wonderful ! 
Ye queenly flowers, the garden's royal flame. 
That burn like us a single hour and fade 
To lightest ashes blown by death about 
The careless earth, — how sweet and beautiful ! 
Ah me, how pitiful the thing called life, 
This tide of freshness quenched in salty death. 
Whose famine ever grows the more it feeds, 
As the waste sea upon the pleasant streams ! 
Since to that bitter end do all things flow, 
Though ne'er so strong and beautiful. But come, 
Let's to the feast, and in full cups deeper 
Than memory drown this bleak philosophy. 

[Exeunt Thalaechus and Xenares.] 

Rail of feast^ guests reclining ^ music and song as 
Thalarchus enters. 

To the feast, to the feast we come ; 
For life is now in its bloom ; 

Full flows the tide 

As onward we glide, 

Forgetful of doom. 

Like petals that fall from their flowers, 
Time scatters his rose-laden hours. 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Ah, only too brief 

Is the blush of the leaf 

In morning's white bowers ! 

Then gather the sweets of the day ; 

To-morrow they'll have faded away ; 
Seize the swift bloom, 
Ere the blight of the tomb, 
And live while we may. 

Dread are the Fates to the fearful, 
Heavy is grief to the tearful ; 
But sorrow and death 
And the grave's fell breath 
Are mocked by the cheerful. 

Eipe is the grape on the vine, 
Euddy the blush of the wine ; 

The ivy- crowned god 

Shall rule with his nod 

The revels divine. 

Let care at the portal await, 
An exile outside of the gate : 

Bacchus alone 

Shall sit on the throne, 

With Venus as mate. 



The FEAST of THALARCHUS 

What heed for time and its flowing, 
What care for life and its going ! 
Unreef the white sail 
To catch the full gale 
Of love's winds a-blowing ! 

The goblet upfiU to the brim, 
With joy aglow to the rim : 

To Venus our love 

With a snow-white dove, 

To Bacchus a hymn. 

As gods on their thrones elate. 
We reck not the threads of fate ; 

Time is our slave, 

And death and the grave 

But shadows that wait. 

Snatch then the moment that goes 
Blown full with life's crimson rose ; 

To-morrow's dim morn 

Will find but the thorn 

And thee — who knows ? 

Critias. 
Methinks there is a discord in the song : 
'Tis scarcely meet to dwell on death when life 

8 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Is at its full. Andj when we feast, 'tis well 
To think on nothing but the feasting. 

Charmides, 

True, 

Friend Critias. 'Tis an unsavoury sauce 

Wherewith to season mirth : I like it not. 

To be reminded death is at the door 

Cripples an eager appetite. 

Antiphon. 

If ot so : 

Ye be but poor philosophers. 'Tis this 

That gives the zest to life, to know it ends. 

The moiety of pleasure is pursuit, 

The other half the climax of its taste 

Subsiding in delicious ecstasy 

Of pain. The sweet expectancy that fed 

Your hope before this feast is half of it ; 

The other half in consummation now. 

To end in swift satiety. But, were 

The Fates to fix you feasting here forever, 

The wine that tingles at your lips were poison. 

The viands that sweetly savour to the palate 

Would grow polluted as a Harpies' feast. 

And ye wane thinner than Tartarian shades 

Consumed by the eternal misery 

Of sheer monotony. No, friends, be wise ; 

9 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Treasure the hour because it flies ; hold fast 
The blossom because it dies ; for therein lies 
The essence of our joy, whose little power 
Grasps but the moment of vicissitude, 
And in the last and greatest change, 
That we call death, sums all of life, making 
It bearable. 

Critias. 

By Bacchus, Antiphon, 
Thou reasonest well ; I'll drink the deeper for't. 

Chai^mides. 

'No, no, he argues ill : better to feast 
Forever here, recking nor change nor death, 
Nor that vast emptiness where Hades yawns 
For unsubstantial shades, than sour the wine 
By thinking on the lees that lie at bottom. 
Think you the rose is sweeter because it fades *? 
Nay, rather were its sweetness sweeter still 
If it but bloomed in immortality ; 
Think you that beauty's beautiful because 
It wrinkles into ugliness with age ? 
Is Thais' alabaster throat whiter 
Than enskyed snow because the tawny years 
Will yellow it ? Her lips aflame with love 
Because the envious hours will pluck their blos- 
soms 

10 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

And leave them pale and withered ? ]^ay, Anti- 

phon, 
Beauty's her own essential loveliness, 
And our delight because she is herself, 
Nor borrows aught from time's revengeful waste. 
Give me the ripened rose because it blooms, 
The hour because 'tis filled with present sweets. 
And Thais' lips, redder than any rose. 
Sweeter and dearer than Olympian bliss, 
Because their luscious pastures are abloom 
With living loves ripe now for gathering, 
And all sufficient in themselves to make 
This single hour eternal. Ay, I'd cram 
All future into one capacious now, 
And this full instant, blown radiant as the sun 
With joy, fashion to immortality ! 

Critias. 
Well said, Charmides : come, we'll drink to it ! 
Thy argument would set all Antioch dry ! 
Ay, were the circumambient seas all wine, 
We'd drain them clean, and make old Neptune 

ride 
On land. Come, Ganymede, fill up again ! 

Antiphon, 
Thou'rt over-young : thy tongue outruns thy wit. 

11 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Critias. 
Thou'rt over-old : thy wit has lost its sap. 

Antiphon. 

And thine still in the green. Be wise and learn 
Of age, which yoked with long experience 
Has travelled life's close orbit o'er and o'er : 
First, childhood's giddy cycle swings its course, 
When all existence is the moment's toy, 
And, stayed within its sinuons channel, time 
Goes eddying round and round with bubbling 

wave, 
The hours perennial vessels of delight 
Gushing with joy ; then youth with passionate 

feet 
Pursuing pleasure to the close, draining 
The chalice dry, and reaping aftermaths 
Of iDain in flagging nature's ravished powers ; 
Youth spent, mid- age awakening from the dream, 
Plucking experience from the thorny vine 
Of sorrow, and temperately husbanding 
Its joys by holding passion in the leash ; 
Lastly, old age, cautious as creeping snails 
Feeling the way, on wisdom's slow staff leans, 
With prudence for its guide, and treads the path 
Of pleasure moderately, knowing the pain 
Of haste and ruin of excess. 

12 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Charmides, 

Thy blood 

Is thin, and wrinkled as the cheek of eld 

Is thy philosophy, O Antiphon. 

Thou preachest for thyself, whose narrow stream 

Is running dry in parched and barren sands ! 

Go spout thy platitudes at funerals. 

And in the corpse's stony ear discourse 

Upon the vanities of life. Our blood 

Is red with lustihood, our years fuller 

Than Amalthea's horn : we drink, we feast, 

We die not ! 

Critias. 

Come, sweet Ganymede, fill up 
Again ! I'm father Bacchus' own to-night, 
Immortal as the gods ! Fill up, I say, 
And drown these musty arguments in wine. 
Here's to thee, ancient Antiphon ! Come, drink ! 
Warm thine old blood with bacchanalian fires ; 
Euby the ashes of thy beard with wine. 
And dream thou' rt young again. I' 11 wager now 
Thou'st not been drunk these thirty years ! 

Antiphon, 

Fie, boy ! 

Thou' It feel the Furies' lash to-morrow morn. 

Thalarchus, I appeal to thee — holds not 

My argument in reason ? 

13 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Thalarchus. 

Sweet friends, 
Let's not dispute about the festal board, 
But all here move to music and to joy 
Concordant as the chiming heavens sing 
In loves harmonious. Upon the arch 
Of time enthroned we sit as gods to-night ! 
Let not to-morrow stare with stony face 
Upon our festival. Olympians all, 
We'll make the old Olympian fable true ; 
Pleasure and beauty by our side, whilst Love, 
Divinest minister, with rosy fingers 
Enweaves his flowery chains to hold us all 
The bonded servants of his amorous nod. 
Thais, O lovelier than Aphrodite's self 
Eising resplendent from the shimmering waves 
Kissing her feet and worshipping, sing thou 
Of love, who art his sovereign mistress now. 
Here, boy, the chaplet and the cithara. 

Antiphon, 
How Bacchus blossoms wanton from his lips ! 

Critids. 

Sweet Hebe, sit thee with me while she sings, 
Thy lip and mine upon the crater's rim, 
While Venus and the god meet in the cup. 

14 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Hercle ! thou art as lovely as Thais there. 
Though Aphrodite envy her ! Hebe 
And Ganymede art thou in one, sweeter 
Than Hybla's honey — 

Charmides. 

Cease, Thais begins. 

Thais (singing). 

Swifter than fire 
Is love's desire, 

Sweeter than wine ; 
Stronger than hate, 
Closer than fate 

Its tendrils entwine. 

Zeus' grim power 
Stays not its soft hour, 

Its sweet, sharp pain ; 
In Danae's tower 
Falls the hot shower 

Of golden rain. 

Love is a rose 
That flame-like blows 
In passion's breast ; 
Pluck it and hold it, 

15 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Softly enfold it 
In love's own nest. 

Thy lips are red 

As the poppy's head. 

Thy breath as wine ; 
Tender thine eyes 
As midnight skies 

With stars that shine. 

Take me and hold me, 
Softly enfold me, 

My lips to thine, 
As love with desire, 
Passion with fire, 

And vine with vine. 

Thalarchus, 

Thais, thy beauty ravishes the eye. 

Thy song the ear. Captive thou tak'st the 

heart. 
And lead'st the soul in gilded chains to love ! 
Venus were beggared of the golden prize. 
Were Paris here to-night. 

Thais. 

And lov'st thou me, 
'Thalarchus 1 

16 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Thalarchus. 
Yea, as Bacchus wine, Mars war, 
As Jove his power, and Venus lovers ! 

Thais. 

Ah! 
Thou lovest as I would be loved. Pledge me 
As Antony his Cleopatra, 
Staking imperial Eome 5 and I will plight 
As Cleopatra pledged her Antony, 
Throwing the priceless pearl within the cup. 
Till its dissolved beauty made the wine 
Precious as Egypt^s kingdom. See ! I fling 
This pearl, though not so fair as Cleopatra's, — 
Oh, would 'twere fairer by a kingdom's worth ! — 
Into the ruby flood, and pledge our loves 
In its quintuple wealth 5 though this be poor 
Indeed beside the largess of our hearts. 
As beggars^ mites compared to Croesus' gold, 

Antiphon. 
The very pearl himself once gave her ! 

Thalarchus. 

IsTay, 
Fairest, touch but the wine with thy rose lips. 
And it grows nectar fitter for gods than men, 

17 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Eiclier than all that Cleopatra ruled 

Or Antony e^er flung away. I'll pledge, 

Ifot in the fragile beauty of a pearly — 

Whose lustre, like the rainbow, melts away, 

With heaven's cloudy tears, before the sun, — 

But, worthier still, in the eternal fires 

Of this most royal gem, that gleamed and glowed 

Of yore on Mother Isis' fecund breast, 

And now, from thine drawing a rosier warmth, 

Shall shed diviner radiance. Thais, to thee. 

Empress of love, fair sovereign of our hearts ! 

Wear thou the stone, and in thy beauty 'twill 

shine 
More beautiful, I'll sing to thee of love. 

Charmides. 
The stone's a treble fortune ! 

Antiphon. 

Treble that, 
Charmides ! Why, 'twould buy half Antioch ! 
How she did wheedle him ! His juggled wits 
Are like the pearl disported in the wine. 
Occasion ripe, she played her venture well, 
And staked a costly hazard on the die. 
To win most preciously. When gain's the game, 
Bacchus is never match for Venus. 

18 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Thalarchus (singing). 

What made the gods more fair than love ? 
What wrought the gods more rare than love 

What compare to love ? 

Tell me^ ye who love ! 
Naught in the sea or air^ O Love, 
In earth or there above, 

O Love, my Love ! 

Sweeter than tang of wine, O Love, 

Brighter than gems that shine, O Love, 
Than gold more fine, O Love, 
Softer than roses, Love ; 

The gods one gift divine, O Love, 

My love with thine, my Dove, 
O Love, my Love ! 

Thais, 

Sweeter than Orpheus fluted in mid-hell. 
Thy song, Thalarchus. See, upon my breast, 
The roseate gleam of mother Isis' stone. 
Thou art a royal lover. 

Thalarchus, 

Who but a king 
May fitly woo the queen of love ? 

19 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Critias. 

Hebe, 
1^11 drink with thee again ; sweet Hebe — 
Why, Venus were a hag beside thee now ! 
O Bacchus is a jolly fellow ! Come, 
We'll drink to him, a jolly tipsy god ! 
Let's sing to him, let's sing, I say ! 

Antiphon. 

Thou' It snore 
With him under the table, Critias, 
Before thou' It sing. 

Critias, 

Ay, snore with him ; let's snore 
With him ; a jolly tipsy god, let's snore 
With him, I say ! Hebe, I drink to thee ! 
A jolly tipsy — 

[Critias /aZZ^.] 

Antiphon. 

Under the table, swine. 
At last. The beast in man is most of him. 
Behold, Charmides, thy philosophy. 
Under the table. So folly clasps excess 
About the neck, and both together drown. 
In moderation taste the dangerous cup, 

20 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

And therein find delight ; for reason, master, 
Holds back the foaming steeds of sense rushing 
Headlong and blind along the parlous course, 
Keener and truer for the checking hand 
That guides them straining at the reins. 

Charmides. 

Old owl, 
Hoot thy pragmatics to the frosty moon ; 
Bathe with cold Dian in her icy streams, 
And nourish thy thin blood on chiccory. 
But we live in the lusty sun, our hearts 
Aglow with all the blessing of the god ; 
'Tis mother Ceres stores them in the grape, 
And father Bacchus brews them in the wine. 
Here's rich Falernian ripe with Italy's tang, 
Encasked these many years in the cool earth, 
Mellow with her soft days, each draught a dream 
Of golden happiness ! Fill, fill again 
And drink ! Here's to Thalarchus and his love ! 
We're gods to-night, and flout the troublous 
world ! 

Glauco. 
Hast tasted these delicious ortolans, 
Hermogenes ? and these flamingo tongues ? 
I would I had a hundred palates now ! 
Alas, why were we made with only one ! 

21 



The FEAST of THALAKCHUS 

Rermogenes. 
Thou'rt crammed as full as a cock^s craw, Glauco ! 

Glauco. 
Oh that I had a craw to stow away 
These ortolans ! The gods, Hermogenes, 
Were jealous when they made us, else why made 
Our small capacities all single ? 

Hermogenes, 

True, 
Yet thou canst eat again. 

Glauco. 

But when again 
Wilt find such feast as this ! such ortolans, 
Such mullets, all the way from Mauritania ! 
Such lampreys, luscious with ambrosial sauce. 
As though the gods themselves were in the 

kitchen ! 
Such tender mushrooms, sweeter than — 

Sermoge'iies. 

Such wines ! 
Thou hast forgot the wines ! 

Glauco. 

No, no ! drink not, 
Hermogenes, before or when thou eat'st. 

22 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

'Tis the first canon of the feaster's art ; 

For wine thickens the nicer taste and dulls 

The quintessential appetite, that sense, 

That cultured sense, whose fine discernment sifts 

The subtler flavours of the food, but has 

No lodgment in the gross and vulgar mouth. 

Then after thou hast eat repletedly. 

Drink to the full, and in the vintage drown 

Thy woe, that thou canst eat no more. 

Hermogenes, 

Hercle ! 
See, Glauco, Thais' beauty glows revealed ! 
Venus Epistrophia, thou art outdone ! 

Glauco. 

It is an art, Hermogenes, that few 
Attain. In eating, men are mostly beasts. 
That nice distinction which — 

[Enter Bacchanalians,'] 

Hermogenes, 

O ravishment ! 
Behold Silenus and his glittering crew ! 
Evoe ! Fauns and Nymphs, Dryads and Naiads, 
With lute and Father Pan's own mellow reed. 
With clash of cymbal and with beat of drum, 

23 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 



With ivy wreath and verdant myrtle bough. 
With tossing arm and heaving breast ! Evoe ! 



Glauco. 

Here, boy ! That dish of lampreys 1^11 essay 
Again. And put that mullet by my side. 
Those locusts, too, place there. As I was saying, 
That nice discernment art alone attains 
Is won by long — 

Heriiiogenes. 

lo ! Bacche ! Evoe ! 
It is the ivy-crowned god himself, 
With all his Bacchanals ! O wondrous sight ! 
Thou glittering pageant, feasting the eager eye ! 
Thou golden dream of fantasy, I leap 
For joy ! Evoe ! Bacche ! lo ! lo ! 

Glauco. 

How tinsel catches a light soul ! Hi, boy ! 
Bring me those ortolans Hermogenes 
Insultingly forgets. 

Hermogenes. 

How they disport 
Themselves I O glorious rout ! They sing, they 

dance. 
They shout and leap with mirth and passion I 

See! 

24 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

The Naiads to the fountains run ! The Fauns 
Pursue and seize the yielding nymphs ! Evoe ! 

[First Chorus of Bacchanals.'] 

lo ! Evan ! 
Clash the cymbal ! 
Crash the timbrel ! 
Lash the drum ! 
We come ! We come ! 
lo ! Evan! 

Let the pipe shrill 
Through valley and hill ! 
lo ! Evan ! 

Silenus and Pan, 
In the wild van, 

With riot and song, 

Ten thousand strong ! 
lo ! Evan ! 

Bacchus, inspire ! 
We breathe with thy fire ! 
lo ! Evan ! 

He who would stay us 
Eemember Pentheus ! 
lo ! Evan ! 

25 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Clash the cymbal ! 
Crash the timbrel ! 

Lash the drum ! 

We come ! We come ! 
lo ! Evan ! 

[Second Chorus of Bacchanals.'] 

lo ! Bacche ! lo ! 

Twi-mothered god, 

With ivy- wreathed rod ! 
lo ! Bacche ! lo ! 

Lord of the vine, 

Life of the wine, 

We are thine, we are thine ! 
We run and we dance. 
We leap and we prance, 
The green turf on ; 

White-footed Naiad, 

Light-footed Dryad, 
Goat-footed Faun ! 
We turn and we twirl, 
As leaves when they whirl, 
As swift waters swirl 
In the eddy's embrace ; 

We twist and we spin. 

Wind out and wind in 

26 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

In the maze of the race 5 
We crouch and we springy 
Our arms toss and fling ; 
We shout and we sing 
To Bacchus, our king ! 

With lips wide apart, 

With swift beating heart. 
Wildly we chant, 
Heavy we pant, 
The breath coming scant. 

As we leap and we prance, 

Eush back and advance, 

As we dance, as we dance, as we dance 
To Bacchus, our king ! 

Thais. 
Thalarchus, thou art pale ! 

Charmides. 

Critias, awake ! 
The great god Bacchus comes ! 

Antiphon, 

Nor fire nor death 
Could rouse him now : his wits are drowned and 
sodden. 

A Dryad (to Antiphon). 
I pluck thy beard, Tithonus. 

27 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Charmides. 

Pluck it, fair nympli ; 
Thou' It never melt his snows ; he's iced around 
With cold discretion twenty inches thick. 



Dryad, 
ancien 
I'll sit upon his knee and thaw him out. 



I'll be Aurora to his ancientness ; 



Antiphon. 

Nay J wanton, scorch Charmides with thy flame ; 
I'm old and seasoned now these sixty years. 
I bear the buckler of experience 
Against thy shafts. 

Thais. 
Thalarchus, art thou ill ? 
Thy hand is trembling, and thou spill' st the wine. 

Antiphon (to Dryad). 
Away, girl ! The years have made me wise. 

Charmides. 
And sourer than an unripe grape. 

Dryad. 

No, no ! 

How soft the silken silver of thy beard ! 

28 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Thy beard is older than thy face. Bacche ! 
But thou'rt not old ! Thou slanderest thyself ; 
Thy skin's as soft as youth's, thine eye as clear. 

Antiphon, 
Thou flatt'r^stme! 

Dryad, 

I do but see thee close ; 
Take off thy beard, and thou'rt as young as any. 

Antiphon, 
Now, now ! dost thou say truly ! 

Thais. 

Speak, Thalarchus ! 
Like chiselled marble thou dost stand and stare ! 

Thalarchus, 
Where art thou, Thais ? Charmides ! Antiphon ! 
Where are the lights that made our banquet 

blaze ? 
How dim, how chill, like breath from sepulchres, 
This fetid air ! 

Thais. 

I hold thee by the hand — 
What spell is on him ? 

29 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Antiphon. 

'Tis the wine that mounts 
His brain^ and weaves the foolish phantasy. 

Thalarchus, 

A mirk mist rises floating up as o'er 
A fen, and slowly moves and curls heavy 
And dun^ yet ghastly with a bluish light 
As from a dying moon — and in it, see ! 
A shadow like a giant's ! 

Thais, 

I see naughty 
Save feast and feasters, a round of mirth and joy, 
A full blown rose of pleasure. Come, shake off 
This most unnatural and deadly humour, 
This cankerous blight, this sick unwholesome 

dread 
That nips thy valour and thy wonted charm, 
And be thy gracious self again ! 

Thalarchus, 

Hear'st not 
The rumble of vast voices gathering far, 
Like distant thunder in the womb of wrath ! 

Thais, 
Naught but the songs of revel and of love, 

30 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

The joyous halloo of Bacchus and his crew, 
The cithern's silver cadence and the lute's, 
Free laughter and wild dalliance-echoing mirth. 

Thalarchus. 
Out of the muggy mist issues a stench, 
As from a thousand rotting carcasses. 
God ! How it sickens the revolted sense ! 

Thais. 

Nay ! 'Tis but the odor of the rose 
That makes the air most redolently sweet ; 
And yonder font of Araby's perfumes, 
Plashing and sparkling in its jewelled bay, 
Casting their precious scents upon the breeze. 

Thalarchus, 

The shadow deepens ! See ! The cloud now 

swirls 
And parts ; and, topping o'er the misty rheum, 
A lofty pillar rears its stony crest. 
And on it, lo ! the figure of a man, 
In suppliant attitude, all bent and bowed. 
As one crushed utterly ! About him swarm 
And crowd a thousand hideous shapes, gibing 
And threatening ! Horrible ! Oh, horrible ! 

31 



The FEAST of THALAEOHUS 

Demons, 

Stinking hypocrite ! Bah ! 

Think' st thou to atone for others? 

Thy frailty bear their sins ! 

Bald fool on the pillar's top ! 

Thou leprous scab of folly ! 

Ha ! ha ! Hell shouts with laughter ! 

Simeon. 

My God, my God ! Help thou me in the trial ! 
I faint with weakness ! 

Demons. 
He faints, the cowardly wretch ! 
A little pain, and he falls down, 
O'ercome. Seize him, and rack him 
From head to foot. Crush him flat 
With heirs full vengeance. Shoot lightnings 
Through his spine, and in his eyeballs 
Spit keen fire to his brain. 
He'd make amends for others' sins, 
Would he? and bear the penalty, — 
This lump of foulness, this filthy clay, 
This idiot on the pillar's top, 
Unshorn, unkempt, unwashed. 
Imputing sanctity to dirt ! 
Drivelling fanatic ! Hoary fool ! 

32 



The FEAST of THALARCHUS 

Simeon. 

Upon thy merits, Lord, alone I lean : 
I have no strength but thine. Thou didst en- 
dure, 
Within the garden's keep, the agony 
Of sin's embrace, and felt its fetid breath 
Upon the mirror of thy purity ; 
And all the reeking tide of evil poured 
Its slimy floods upon thee, stifling thee, 
Till nature, pushed beyond her durance, swooned 
And sweated blood through all thine aching 

veins ! 
Pour from the precious treasury of thy pain 
Some little grace to stay my impotence ! 
Fill up my emptiness with thy vast merit ; 
For I but merit in thy merit. Lord, 
And gain but in thy gain. 

Demons, 
Craven ! poltroon ! He's afraid ; 
He dares not fight alone, 
And calls for aid upon another. 
We call upon no over-lord : 
Our strength's our own, all undivided ! 
In independent might self- lords, 
We bend no cringing back, 
And lift no suppliant voice 

33 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Whining to the tyrant ! 

Upon him, Spirits of the Deep ! 

Eend him ! flay him with your teeth 

From head to heel, till the red flesh 

Quiver and palpitate ! This 

For the lusts of Antioch ! 

Simeon. 

They scourged thee at thy pillar, Lord, till Thou 
Didst stand in thine own blood. The knotted lash 
That flaked thy flesh away — O piteous sight ! — 
Was the red tooth of foul concupiscence ; 
And Thou didst stand in patience and endure, 
Silent, the ravenous fang that bit and tore 
Thine innocence in offering for our sins ! 
And from a thousand wounds thy mangled flesh 
Wept bloody streams upon the guilty earth ! 
By thy fierce scourging, Lord, grant me new 

strength. 
And from the vessels of thy grace fill up 
My nothingness with power ! 

Demons. 

Again he seeks defence 

Behind another^ s might. 

The skulker ! White-livered dotard ! 

Dastard, we spit on thee ! 

34 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Hast thou not set thyself up 

On this high pillar's top, 

A shining mark of sanctity 

For all the country round, 

A protest and rebuke 

To lustful Antioch ! 

And for its sins acceptest 

The rigorous penalties ; 

Endurest wind and rain 

And storm and cold and heat 

For its soft luxuries ; 

Suflferest the filth and dirt 

Of thy scab- crusted body, 

Fouling these long and tedious years 

For its nice daintiness, 

Its sensual cleanliness ; 

Bearest hunger and thirst 

For its vile gluttonies, 

Silence and solitude 

For its wild blasphemies 

And lascivious hours ; 

The narrow prison of the pillar 

For its licentiousness ! 

And thou'rt a saint, forsooth. 

And workest miracles, 

And hearest the people call thee saint, 

And pray to thee for help 

35 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

At thy tall pillar^ s base ! 
A sorry saint, indeed, 
Who darest not own thy shadow, 
Nor comest forth to meet a foe 
Out of thine own valiance, 
But, supplicating, whinest 
A mongrel prayer to Heaven, 
Timid and trembling ! Bah ! 
Psalm- droner ! Prayer- monger ! 
Thou a saint ! Ha ! ha ! 

8imeon, 

O Lord, upon thy handiwork look down 

With love's forbearing eye ; for I am naught 

Within the searching splendour of thy sight. 

Whose vision equals to thyself alone, 

One Lord omnipotent and infinite, 

Maker of heaven and earth through thy sole 

Word! 
Within my mother's womb thou madest me. 
And out of the abyss of nothingness 
Didst give me being through very love ! — O 

Lord, 
My God, let me not fail to love again ! — 
And nourished me and cherished me, a babe. 
Who knew thee not, in helpless infancy. 
And guided me through all the wayward years 

36 



The FEAST of THALARCHUS 

Of youth, and led me wandering in the paths 
Of sin back to the bosom of thy mercy ! 
Let me not fail, my God, nor deem myself 
Before thee aught but thy poor creature, dust 
And ashes in thy hand ! 

Demons, 

Groveller ! Abject worm. 
In vile abasement crawling ! 
Cracked vessel of dishonour ! 
Upon him. Spirits ! Befoul him 
With utmost stench and filth ! 
Traitor to his manhood ! 
Betrayer of his sovereign will ! 
Thou mimic of a saint ! 
Thou manikin ! Despiser 
Of the sacred precious gift 
Of freedom, kept by us alone 
Intact against the tyrant ! 

Simeon, 
O Lord, Thou dost solicit me with love. 
And gently knockest at my heart, calling 
Upon me sweetly ! And I may close the door 
Against Thee, Lord, and answer not ; for Thou, 
O Lord, respectest in thy handiwork 
The gift of freedom, which Thou didst bestow 

37 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Upon Thy creature, who but holds as he 
Eeceives from Thee. And when, O Lord, I bid 
Thee come, moved by thy blandishment, Thou 

com'st 
In the swift whirlwind of thy love, and snatch' st 
Me up in ecstasy, and hold'st me ravished 
With love ! For I am thine, O Lord, by right 
Of sovereignty ; and Thou art mine by might 
Of love ! Thou gavest me myself, O Lord, 
And hold'st me in the hollow of Thy hand, 
Suspended o' er the void of nothingness ; 
And then Thou gavest me thyself, O Lord, 
Pouring thy goodness upon me like a flood 
Of pleasant waters on a barren plain ! 
And Thou hast bought me with a price, O Lord ! 
And, in the covenant of Christ made flesh, 
Hast pledged thyself to me, and feedest me 
Upon thyself, till I abide in Thee, 
And Thou in me ; whereof in Thee I find 
The fulness of all love, the round and sum 
Of all desire 1 for in Thee, Lord, I am 
And have my life, and move, O Lord, in Thee, 
Who art our perfect good and perfect love, 
First impulse and last term of liberty. 
For I, O Lord, am as a little child. 
And Thou the eager mother of the child, 
Who first instib in him desire to walk, 

38 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

And leads him by the hand that he may walk, 
Then kisses him, rewarding him, because 
He walked, who neither had desire to walk. 
Save through the inspiration of her love, 
Ifor yet had walked save by her guiding hand^ 
And still withal of his own motion walked ; 
For thine the grace, O Lord, that moves, and 

thine 
The grace that aids, and thine the guerdoning 

grace. 
That crowns thy creature's free response, who 

moves 
To Thee by love divine solicited, 
And rests in Thee by love divine rewarded. 

Demons. 
Caviller ! Word-monger ! 
Hoary sophist fouling 

Man's limpid intelligence with murky phrases ; 
Clouding the crystal brightness 
Of independent reason 
With muddy mysteries ! 
We' 11 teach thee proper pride 
For the high dignity 
Of outraged intellect 
Betrayed and surrendered 
By thee in shameless fear, 

39 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

To be tramped mockingly 

Under the Tyrant's feet ! 

Lift him in mid-air 

By the heels, and dash him down 

Upon the rocks beneath, 

Smashing his foolish skull, 

Scattering the muddled brains, 

That shame the high prerogative 

And abase the lofty puissance 

Of man's lordly mind — 

Eush upon him ! Sweep him off ! 

Thalarchus, 

My God, my God, let not the malignant host 
Prevail ! 

Thais. 

Of whom, Thalarchus, speakest thou f 

Antiphon, 

There is some maggot in his overwrought brain, 
That feeds upon his reason ; let be, let be, 
He'll mend by morning. 

Thalarchus, 

Like a surcharged cloud, 
Green with the sulphurous wrath of pent light- 
nings, 

40 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

They gather round him, ominous, muttering ! 
And now with sudden fury unleash upon him ! 
O God ! — See, they touch him not ! but break 
Against the pillar^ s edge as the giant sea 
Flinging against a beetling cliflf is stayed 
Eoaring, and beaten back draws to the deep 
Again, foaming in angry impotence ! 

Simeon. 
Thy brows were crowned with thorns, my God, 

piercing 
Thy temples with their spikes, and all around 
Thy head circled the barren coronal 
Pressed by the ribald soldiers' cruel staves 
Into the bruised flesh. This mock, O Lord, 
Thou didst endure in silent humbleness^ 
And wore this leafless diadem of pride 
For sins of those, who insolently boast 
The shallow plummet of their little minds 
Sounding the muddy waters of time's sea, 
Above the immeasurable, sacrosanct 
Eternal Eeason of their God filling 
The crystal oceans of the infinite. 
Hear me, O Lord, and let thy strength be 

mine ! 
Lift thou me up to thy humility. 
Who only knows to conquer through thy pain ! 

41 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

And in the bloody wine spilled from the vine, 
Whose bitter thorns en vised thy tender brows, 
Sustain my weakness, and thy pardon poui' 
Upon the pride of boastful Antioch ! 

Thalarchus, 

His prayer prevails ! Their horrid ranks re- 
pulsed, 
Staggered and broken, scatter like thinning rack 
Before the first keen breath of crystal winds 
Clearing the labouring heavens. 

Demons (retiring). 

Not through thy might, Simeon, 
Is our due vengeance stayed : 
Another's power holds us, 
Tyrannously thrusts us back. 
Our valour undismayed 
Yields only for the moment. 
We'll come again new armed, 
And crush thee flat against 
The earth, and stamp thee down 
Into the mire, like dung ! 

Simeon, 

Now praise to Thee, O Lord, my God, all praise ! 
For thine the power and thine the glory. Lord, 

42 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Who sittest on the Cherubim, the earth 
Thy lowly footstool and the heavens thy throne ! 
Before thy servant Thou didst hold thy shield 
Against the demons' power, and Hell prevailed 

not ! 
For who shall stand against thy might, O Lord I 
Before thy wrath the heavens are shrivelled, 
The earth is smoke, and all the goods thereof ; 
The sun goes out in darkness, and the stars 
Flicker and die ; time like a spent breath 
Evanishes, and space through all its utmost 

bounds 
Shrinks shuddering ! Nor earth, nor heaven, 

nor hell 
May stand before thee. Lord, eterne and sole, 
Coequal with thyself alone in being, 
In power, in love and goodness infinite. 
Perfect and absolute and all-sufl&cient 
Within thyself who art eternal good ! 
But thou, O Lord, wilt not destroy thy works : 
Thou lov'st the goodly order of thy hand, 
And out of the disorder of our sins 
Hast drawn still sweeter harmonies of love 
Through him thine only Son, consubstant God 
With Thee, who stooping to our lowliness 
Lifted our nature to thy holiness. 
And spanned the chasm in nature and in grace, 

43 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Which sin had breached through all our uni- 
verse ; 
And, bearing all the burden of our fault, 
Made gracious healing in vicarious pain, , 
Consummate in the awful sacrifice 
Upon Golgotha's trembling mount, when all 
The elements made moan, and stricken Nature, 
Sighing through all her ways, in darkness veiled 
Her conscious eyes ! Through Him, O Lord, the 

power. 
By Him the victory, and unto Him 
The glory! I but a shaken reed fearful 
Before the blast, broken, save for thy hand 
Sheltering thy creature's weakness in the storm. 

Tlialarchiis. 

Oh, how sublime his words, how great the power 
Thereof, scattering the hellish crew like dust 
In the whirlwind, beating their malice down 
As the keen hail levels the boastful pride 
Of summer fields ! O mystery of pain 
And death, that issuest in power and life, 
Grant me to see ! Upon my purblind heart 
Pour down thy deep irradiance, and pierce 
The fetid exhalations of my sins, 
That blind the souFs uncleansed and rheumy 
eye ! 

44 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Inflame me with desire, and purge me clean 

In penitential fires, till I, too, learn 

To love as Simeon, a holocaust in Christ 

For wanton Antioch's iniquities ! 

Simeon, upon thy pillar's top pray thou 

For me, who mocked thee and thy God, and 

knew 
Thee not, nor him, and, knowing not, reviled 
And called thee fool, fanatic, dotard, dolt, 
And heaped upon thee all the ribaldry 
Of the contemptuous world, the scorn of pride, 
The scoff, the jest, the easy ridicule 
Of sensual hearts, whose unpurged lust feeling 
The secret sting of others' holiness. 
As the sharp thorn beneath the rose, resents 
The silent imputation of its guilt, 
And brooking not the impeachment of its shame, 
With pitchy tongue envenomed in foul hates, 
Spits out the bawdy mockeries of its filth 
Upon the lilies of love's sanctities. 
O Simeon, pray for me, whose sins thou takest 
In suffering upon the pillar's height, 
Under the pitiless sun, the icy stars, 
In pangs of nature and assaults of hell ; 
Pray thou for me, who from the depths below 
Cries out in agonies of shame and calls 
In Christ's dear name for mercy and for pardon ! 

45 



The FEAST of THALARCHUS 

Simeon, 

I hear a voice as of one calling out 

And beating at the gates of mercy ! Lord^ 

Hear him and open unto him ! 

Thais, 

Who is't 
His madness now addresses ? 

Antiphon, 

One, Simeon, 

They call the Stylite, an idiot monk, who lives 

Upon a pillar's top near Antioch, 

Some twenty miles beyond the city's gates. 

Thais, 
V ve heard the rumour of this strange disease. 

Simeon, 
Lord, by thy bloody sweat, have mercy, Lord ! 

Antiphon. 
Under the subtle witchery of the wine 
This monkish madness has seized upon his wits, 
And holds his fancy : it will pass anon. 

Simeon, 
By thy red scourging at the pillar. Lord, 
Have mercy! Let his cry come unto Thee ! 

46 



The FEAST of THALARCHUS 

Charmides, 

Heed not, Thalarchus, Thais : to-morrow's morn 
Will see his health restored. — Come, I pledge 
Thy beauty in this draught ! 

Thais, 

I'll drink with thee ! 
Let Bacchus blow the fire and Venus lead ! 

Simeon. 

Hearken unto Thy creature's cry, O Lord ! 
Gird not the bowels of mercy up, but hear ! 
For Thou hast said, Whoso shall knock, to him 
Shall it be opened. By the clotted thorns 
About thy brow, the raillery and the mock 
Of Pilate's soldiers spitting on Thee, Lord, 
Incline unto thy creature's lowliness. 
Who cries to thee from out the depths, and calls 
Unto the ear of thy compassion, Lord ; 
For Thou didst take our frailty on thyself 
In pity of our sins. 

Thalarchus. 

Blessed be thou, 
O Simeon, thrice blessed thou who pray'st 
For me sunk in the foulness of my sins ! 

47 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Simeon, 

Thou wilt not, Lord, refuse a contrite heart ; 
And Thou didst pardon Mary Magdalene, 
Who wept her sorrow on thy sacred feet^ 
And him who cried to Thee beside thy cross ; 
And Thou didst heal the lepers of their sores, 
Till they were fair to look upon ; and him 
That lay asick of bed, thou didst unloose 
Of all his sins and bid him rise and walk ; 
For thou didst come with healing in thy hands 
And mercy unto life again for them 
That would arise from out their sinfulness 
To walk with thee. 

Demons (in distance). 
He's winning Thalarchus from us ! 
Let him not prevail ! Curse him ! 
Were't not for the Despot's power, 
Who tyrannously holds us back, 
We' d snatch and lift his column 
In mid-air, and dash it to earth 
And smash it, and him with it, 
Who now, on his filthy eerie 
Of vantage, drones his prayers 
To listening Heaven against 
Our valour and our might ! 
We ask but a fair field 

48 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

To smite him down and crush him ! 

This vagabond of sanctity ! 

Let him go back to his cell 

And mumble his unctuous prayers 

In secret to his fattened God. 

Hate seize us and rack us 

At mention of that name ! 

Let him not stand conspicuous 

Upon the pillar's top before 

The people, to seduce them 

From their soft living 

And mellowed luxuries 

By his austere ensample 

Of dire mortification 

And penance vicarious ! 

'Tis against the cloister's rule : 

Why do they tolerate it ? 

But we'll o'ercome him yet : 

Hell's not easily foiled ! 

We have an arrow left 

In our quiver to pierce him. 

Ha ! ha ! we know a way 

To snare this filthy bird, 

And drag him from his nest. 

Ha ! ha ! we'll show him yet 

The craft of independent 

Intellect he so derides 

49 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

And flouts in abject obeisance 
To the Tyrant lie worships ! Ha ! ha ! 
We know a way to lime him ! 
We'll double on the ancient fox 
Before he runs to earth again ! 

Simeon. 

Let him not perish, Lord, who calls on Thee ! 
As Thou didst suffer Simon to take Thy cross 
Upon the heavy way to Calvary, 
Though asking not, yet after bearing gladly, — 
Suffer Thy creature now who pleads with thee. 
To share its burden humbly. Lord, with thee, 
And out of the vast fulness of thy love 
Draw balm and healing for his sinful hurts. 
On me, O Lord, the creature of thy hand, 
Who am as nothing in thy sight, the least 
Of those who serve Thee, of infirmities 
Full as a sieve of meshes holding nought, — 
On me, O Lord, the fellow of this hour. 
His country, and his city, pour the pain 
Of his offending, till thy justice shifts 
Her beam and balances her scale again 
In full amend of penance done. And this, 
O Lord, prostrate before thee in the dust 
Of mine unworthiness, mote in the breath 
Of thine infinitude, I humbly pray 
Out of the preciousness of Christ's spent blood, 

50 



The FEAST of THALARCHUS 

TVTiicli purcliased us with ransom infiuite, 
Eternal price of Adam's and our sin ! 

Demons (approaching). 

Woe ! \7oe ! we're overcome, 
Eouted by Simeon's prayer ! 
Great is his holiness, 
That conquereth our might, 
Lords of the deep with power 
O'er hell's dominion wide ; 
Spirits of darkness knowing 
The potent secrets of nature, 
Seducing the lordly race 
Of men to open rebellion 
Against their Maker. Woe ! woe ! 
Our pride is fallen, our boast 
Is broken, crushed down flat 
By Simeon's might in prayer. 
Woe to us, woe ! Keener 
Than pangs of hell the shame 
Of defeat by Simeon brought 
Upon our puissant ranks 
Broken against the rampart 
Of his potent prayer, 
As the dusty simoon breaks 
Against the bulwarked mountain ! 
Woe ! woe ! O shameful woe ! 
Hate unto him forever ! 

51 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Simeon, 

Bear down upon me, Lord, bear down and plunge 
Me in the abyss of emptiness, whence I 
Was drawn by Thee, the creature of thy love ! 
The clamour of hell is but a noisy wind 
Before Thee, vain as froth upon the wave. 
The arrow of their hate they aim at Thee, 
I but the seeming mark. For Thine, O Lord, 
The power that scatters them ; and they, O Lord, 
As I, are but the creatures of thy breath, 
Hardened against Thee in their pride, envious 
Of man whom thou hast made to fill their place. 
And I am but an empty vessel filled 
With the omnipotence of prayer, which Thou 
In largess of thy love hast poured in me ; 
And sufferest me to use against their power. 
Whose damning praise is but the silken snare 
Of flattery, with which bold Satan once 
Essayed to take the soul of Christ himself ! 
And Christ's the glory sole against the power 
Of hell broken by him forever ! 

Demons (on right side, disguised now as Angels 

of Light). 
Hail, Simeon, victor o'er the hellish host ! 
By Heaven sent, we come to solace thee 
With happy tidings and assurance glad 

52 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Of Heaven's high approval. Thou hast fought 
The goodly fight and won. Hail to thee, saint ! 

Simeon, 

Now praise to Jesus Christ alone ! To Him 
The glory, whose right hand of power reaches 
To midmost hell ! 

Demons (on left side, undisguised). 

Why speaks he the Terrible Name, 
That makes all hell shudder 
Unto its deepest deeps ! 
Curse it ! curse it ! curse it ! 

Demons (on right side). 
Eest thee, Simeon ; for thou hast earned thy meed. 
Behold the raging elements repressed, 
Which hell with malice vain against thee roused. 
And all the air that lately shook with storm 
And roared, rent with the crackling thunderbolt, 
Slumbers in mellow quiet and breathes soft balm. 
Down from the glowing arches of the night. 
Peace, dovelike on her rediscovered nest, 
In feathery silence drops, and dreaming broods ; 
Tender as mothers' eyes upon their babes, 
And pure, the glimmering ardour of the stars 
Falls on the shadowed earth and wearied men 

53 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Sunk in the bath of slumber after toil^ 
To wake upon the coming morn refreshed 
Against the burden of the hastening day. 
All nature sleeps and rests, drawing new life 
From the deep fountains of repose 5 for so 
The wisdom of the Maker foreordained, 
Dividing night from day. Eest thee, and sleep, 
O holy Simeon, while we watch and guard. 

8imeon, 

The rounded beauty of the night, thy hand, 
O Lord, in the beginning builded up, 
And fixed the pillars of the firmament. 
And gave their motions to the wheeling stars. 
Making thy glory manifest on high : 
Thy word uttered above the void brought forth 
The solid earth and all that live thereon. 
The circling seas and all that swim therein, 
The liquid air and all that fly therein. 
Each in its place and moving in its sphere 
With variant note blending concordant song. 
And making in the couched ear of Heaven 
Vast harmony. And so the whole round world 
And the respondent heavens, O Lord, utter 
Thy glory and make manifest thy praise ! 
For thine the gentle silence of the night. 
And thine the softness of the balmy air, 

54 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

And thine the s^yeet refreshment of repose 

And strength renewed in man and beast and 

fowl ; 
And thine the glory of the golden morn, 
And all the splendour of the rising sun 
Shedding the benediction of its light 
Upon the waking world. 

Denions (on right side). 

Nay, holy man, 
Eest thee ; and whilst thou slumberest, drawing 
^ew vigour from the crystal fonts of sleep, 
We'll raise on high the hymn of praise. 

Thalarchus. 

Simeon, 
Pray thou for me, and at the feet of Christ 
Make intercession for my grievous sins ! 

Demons (on right side). 
Thou'rt wearied, Simeon, and thy force is spent. 
The very desert sleeps, and darkness shrouds 
The land heavy with silence, wooing all 
To rest. Deep is the shadow of the night, 
And nature yields responsive to the law 
Ordained in the beginning. Spent art thou 
With battling 'gainst the routed hosts of hell, 

55 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

And all tliy racked and bruised frame leaden 

With weight of toil drags down thy spirit worn 

With unremitted prayer against thy foe. 

Respite thy vigilance and prayerful might ; 

And to great nature's hest surrendering, 

In due obedience to its Maker's law, 

In slumber steep thy flagging powers, and rest. 

Thalarchus. 
Simeon, Simeon, pray thou for me, whose heart 
Is withered with his sins ! 

Antiphon. 

The night hath past 
The middle heavens two hours and more : 'tis 

late. 
I go. Farewell, good friends. 

Charmides. 

Love knows no hour : 
I stay with thee, Thais, be it night or day. 

Thais. 

If ow is the ripened hour of revel. Stay, 
O Antiphon, and drink with me ! I touch 
Thy goblet with my lips. Wilt not refuse 
My pledge ! 

56 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Antipkon. 

I yield the golden moment, Thais, 
And staying court the precious, sweet delay. 

Thalarchus. 
Simeon, Simeon, pray thou for me whose soul 
Lies in the darkness of its evil days ! 

Simeon. 
Let him not perish, Lord, whose voice I hear 
Out of the night in supplication raised ! 
Eenew his heart, and thy refreshment pour 
Upon his bruised spirit crying out ! 
If Thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities. 
Lord, who shall stand? Spare us, and gather 

not 
Our sins against thy day of wrath, but hear, 
O Lord, and let our prayer come unto thee ! 
Thy mercy, Lord, is even above thy works ; 
And thou hast made thy mercy manifest 
In Christ, who stood for our iniquities. 
And took our sins away ! Have mercy. Lord, 
And by Christ's blood hearken unto our cry ! 

Demons (on left side). 
Confusion upon him ! Tempt him ! 
Let him not escape ! Tempt him ! 

57 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Demons (on right side). 

Heaven commends thy vigilance^ O saint, 
And we but tried thee for the Lord. The voice 
Thou hearest crying is the voice of one 
Who prays in Antioch, by Heaven's power 
Permitted through the thick and heavy night 
To see thee on thy pillar's top, and, touched 
By grace at sight of thee, cries out for pardon. 
The ways of Heaven are merciful, nor time 
Nor place resists the beating floods of grace 
Poured from the copious fountains of its love : 
E'en in the midst of riot and of sin 
The impetuous tide of mercy snatches him, 
And bears him to the deeps of love beyond. 
And Heaven, to solace thee in recompense 
Of all thou hast endured and overcome. 
Puts back the murky curtain of the dark. 
And suffers thee to look upon the scene : 
Behold Thalarchus and the wanton feast. 
Where thou hast conquered and beat back the 

lords 
Of hell ! Look, Simeon, and rejoice ! 

Thalarchus. 

Pray, pray, 

O Simeon ; for my heart is dust, my soul 

Ashes, and all my years but bitterness ! 

58 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Simeon. 

The Lord will water thee and make thee sprout ; 
For he is Lord of love. Mighty His power, 
That overcometh death and puts down sin 
Under his feet ! How wonderful thy ways, 
O Lord, and no man knoweth them ; for who 
Hath been thy counsellor % For of thee, Lord, 
And by thee are all things, and in thee all. 
Who are from the beginning sole, and are 
Eternal term unto thyself alone ! 
Praise ye the Lord, ye heavenly creatures, 

praise ! 
Ye Cherubim and Seraphim and Powers 
And all Angelic Hierarchies ranged 
In flaming choirs, and all ye blessed hosts 
And saints that bask within his beam eterne, 
Ye spotless lilies of Christ's fruitful love, — 
Praise ye the Lord through all your ringing 

ranks ! 
And thou, whose virgin flesh didst bear His Son, 
Alone of Adam's race untouched of sin, 
Co-worker in Eedemption's plan by grace 
Of Him who had regard for thy humility. 
And lifted thee above all creatures else 
In Heaven's celestial ranks or on the earth 
Unto that dignity of motherhood 
So sacrosanct that none save Him alone 

59 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

May comprehend the height and depth and term 

Of its exalted holiness, — praise ye 

The Lord ! Eejoice and be glad with me 

Who, falling down before His Face, lift up 

My voice and cry out in exceeding joy. 

Seeing this marvel of the Lord's right hand ! 

For wonderful the starry heavens above. 

The unseen fountains of the crystal sea, 

The far foundations of the fixed earth, 

The little things and great of all that is, 

The tiny creature floating in the light. 

The spaces of the yawning universe, 

And time's wide tract from utmost shore to shore 

Of his eternity, so wonderful 

And beautiful in number, weight, and measure, 

Balanced within his all-sustaining hand. 

And moving in the order of his power 

To that ordained and harmonious end 

Set in His wisdom for their perfect close, — 

Praise ye the Lord for these His mighty works, 

But praise ye more beyond all praise of words, 

Beyond all utterance of human tongue. 

Beyond the vastest reach of angel's thought, 

That mystery of grace and farthest love. 

Touching the sinner's hard averted will. 

Subduing pride and melting all the soul 

To tears, till it incline to him again ) 

60 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

And spurning all its hated servitude, 

Inviolate of all constraint, rises 

Enfranchised from its reeking bed of sin 

And freely answers to the call of Love ! 

O wondrous miracle, O mystery 

Of Love beyond all knowing ! Praise ye 

The Lord, ye hills and mountains, valleys and 

plains, 
O earth and heaven, and ye shining stars, 
Ye blessed hosts of happiness, ye Powers, 
Ye Dominations, Angels, and Archangels, 
Till all the universe of high and low 
Trembling, responsive with the harmony 
In circling joy about the throne of Love, 
Sing in the swelling chorus of its praise, 
Hosanna to the Lord ! Hosanna ! Hosanna ! 

Thalarchiis. 
O waters of great joy upon my soul, 
Eefreshing all my faintness ! On the wings 
Of morning am I lifted up ! O balm 
Of healing to my wounded spirit ! Simeon, 
Thy words are holy courage in my heart ! 

Demons (on left side). 
Confusion on him ! Tempt him ! 
He prays like a mighty fountain 

61 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Leaping to Heaven — tempt him ! 

Ye sluggish spirits, shame 

On your vaunted cunning, boasters ! 

Shall it be said in hell 

That this broken and wasted fool 

Worsted the high intelligence 

Of pure spirits heaven-born, 

Though cast out by the Tyrant 

By sheer force — shame us not ! 

Make no delay ! Tempt him ! 

And in this subtle net 

Drag him from his high perch ! 

Demons (on right side). 

Thy prayers have wrenched Thalarchus from the 

grip 
Of hell e'en midst the orgies of the feast ! 
Upon thy victory feed thine eager soul ; 
For Heaven vouchsafes this sweet reward. Be- 
hold 
The banquet's vast luxuriance scattered 
By prodigality with wanton hands 
Careless of use. The enamoured heavy air, 
Pregnant with perfume of a thousand flowers, 
Falling in flaky rain from unseen hands. 
Melts all the soul to indolence, and soothes 
The swooning sense ; the fountains plash and 
murmur 

62 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

In dreamy rhythm on the drowsy ear, 
Blending with throbbing music soft and low, 
Whose gentle cadences, from fretted string 
And oaten stop blowing its mellow sound, 
Mingle their dulcet harmonies, stealing 
Into the brain and mellow^ing the spirit 
To sensuous languors. See, around about 
A thousand lamps, feeding on scented oils 
In jewelled transparencies encaged, throw out 
Their irised radiance, shedding warmth and light 
Upon the gleaming marbles of the hall, 
Teeming with mirth and revelry and love. 
Eest thee, O Simeon, a little moment here ; 
And let thy wearied eye, that naught beholds 
Save blinding leagues of sandy wastes stretching 
Beneath the beating glare of desert suns, 
Couch now an instant on the mellow scene. 

Simeon, 
Bleak were thy hills, O Judah, when He came, 
My Lord and God, unsheltered from the winds, 
Save for the lonely stable's broken thatch ; 
And for his tender limbs the manger's straw. 
Cropped by the dumb, unconscious brutes, that 

shared 
His lowliness. Cast out by men, he found 
Eude habitation with the beasts alone ; 

63 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Nor light nor warmth diffused their tenderness 

Around, nor ministrant were servile hands 

In purple and fine linen to array 

His innocence. He came unto his own, 

And they received him not, and knew him not, 

Eejected and despised of men. O Lord, 

My God, e'en in the cradle thou didst choose 

The way of sorrow, and, a babe, espouse 

The bitter bride of poverty, to point 

The way of those who love. O Holy Babe, 

So low in thy humility that man, 

By thine ensample, may be lifted up, 

Eaise us from out this slough of wantoness. 

And by the desolation of thy crib 

Forgive us this our sin's luxurious ease ! 

Thalarchus. 
O Christ, thy poverty be mine ! 

Demons (on right side). 
The savour of rare viands rise up to whet 
The appetite, and moist the wrinkled lip 
Of hunger with sharp longing. 

Simeon. 

Thou, O Lord, 

Didst fast within the desert forty days. 

And Satan tempted thee ! 

64 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Demons (right side). 

Thy throat is parched, 
And all thy tongue aflame with thirst ; for dry 
And hot the air under the desert sun, 
And small the share of water brought to thee 
By thy forgetful brethren of the cells. 
Packed in its snowy bed the crater stands, 
And cool the wine upon the crackled lip ; 
Eefreshing is the sweet, red draught charging 
The feverish veins with ruddy life again. 

Simeon, 

When thou, O Lord, upon thy cross didst cry, 
^^I thirst,^' they gave thee vinegar and gall. 

Demons (on right side). 

Thou'rt ever mindful, Simeon, of thy Lord ; 

And valorous art thou in thy vigilance. 

All heaven rejoices in thy holiness. 

Thalarchus thou hast won by dint of prayer 

Accepting all the burden of his sins. 

For this high HeaVen permitted the assault 

Of hell to-night to try thy fortitude ; 

And gloriously hast thou conquered, Simeon. 

And now let not thy charity wane cold ; 

But as the imperial sun in heaven's high arch, 

65 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Whose glowing eye looks down upon the earth's 
Outstretched demesne from morn's to eve's red 

marge, 
And sheds celestial heats on all alike. 
So let the furnace of thy saintly love 
Beam down its radiance on all sinners here. 
Have pity on them, Simeon, and draw from 

Heaven, 
Through the vicarious offering of thyself. 
Pardon and mercy. Heaven will hear ; for what 
More grateful in heaven's eye, after the Lord's 
Own sacrifice, the source and root of all. 
Than the abandonment of utter love 
Making atonement for another's sin ! 
For greater love than that a man lay down 
His life for other, no man hath. 

Simeon, 

Yea, Lord, 
Thy life Thou didst lay down for each and all, 
Thy love immeasurable, and as thy love 
Thy sacrifice. And Thou wast lifted up 
To draw all things to Thee, and, drawing, win 
The hearts of men to sacrifice of self. 
And lose themselves in love of Thee, to find 
Themselves in Thee transfigured ! I, O Lord, 
Seek only Thee, and them in Thee, and Thee 

L.ofC. 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

lu them, whom Thou hast bought with a great 

price ! 
Thou callest them, O Lord : grant them to hear ! 
And in thy mercy lift them up ! 

Demons (on right side). 

Simeon, 
Behold Thais, the chiefest sinner here, 
Steeped in the slumber of the wine ! Pray thou 
For her, a sinful daughter of weak Eve. 
Let not such beauty be the prey of hell ! 
'Sot Eve herself came from her Maker^s hand 
More fair. Slipped from the fillet's amorous 

clasp, 
Her locks, like silken gold from looms of light, 
Shower down a streaming glory gleaming about 
The whiteness of her shoulder's ivory arch, 
As star-shafts on the billow's crested foam ; 
Her lips incarnadine, her flushed cheek — 

Simeon. 

They gashed thy hands and feet with nails, O 

Lord, 
And, lifting up thy heavy gibbet, plunged 
It in its earthy socket shuddering, 
Tearing thy tender, gaping wounds anew, 

67 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

And racking all thy jarred and bruised frame 
With sudden agony ! Pierce me, O Lord, 
With that fierce pain, and rack this recreant 

flesh, 
The weak inheritance of Adam's sin, 
That through thy merit I may somewise share 
With thee the dire atonement of her sin ! 

Demons (on leftside). 
He escapes ! Confusion and shame ! 
He escapes ! 

Demons (on right side, throwing off disguise). 

We are baffled ! 
The Tyrant suffers us not 
To gain one slightest foothold 
Within the circle of his soul ! 

Demons (on left side). 

Upon him ! Seize him ! 
Tear him ! Smash his pillar ! 

Demons (on right side). 
Unleash your pent rage like hail ! 
Assault him and crush him ! Come ! 
Let all rush on like furious fire ! 

68 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Thalarchus. 

All hell vomits itself upon him ! Lord, 

Thy servant guard ! Portentous they loom, 

monstrous, 
In size giants, in shape most horrible ; 
With eyes of fire and wide outstretching vans 
With flaming lightnings veined, onward they 

sweep, 
As though to engulf the world in hellish storm ! 
But no ! See, Heaven forbids ! They sway ! 

They stop ! 
And now as swollen clouds, pregnant with death, 
Meeting an adverse wind, are stayed and blown 

back, 
Their dreadful host, sullen and muttering, 
Eecede before the breath of Heaven ! And, lo ! 
They melt away into the empty air ! 

Enter Xenares. 

Xenares, 
My lord, the night is dying in the west, 
And dawn appears. The guests are gone, save 

those 
Who lie here drowned in wine. The air is dank 
With poisonous humours of the heavy morn, 
And thou art pale. Wilt go within ? 

69 



The FEAST of THALAEOHUS 

Thalarchus, 

'Tis gone ! 
Evanished ! O gracious vision by Heaven 
vouchsafed ! 

Xenares, 
What, my lord? 

Thalarchus, 

The wonder of it ! 

Xenares, 

My lord, 

Wilt come within ? 'Tis damp : thou'rt ill. 

Thalarchus, 

I am, 
Xenares, ill and well. 

Xenares, 

How^s that, my lord? 

Thalarchus, 
HI with the past, and well with what's to come. 

Xenares, 
My lord, I do not understand. 

Thalarchus, 

Last night 
Thou saw'st me ill. 

70 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Xenares. 

Nay, my good lord, never 
Did health mantle more ruddy in thy cheek, 
Nor shine so loudly in thine eye. 

Thalarchus, 

Yet was I ill ; 
Sick unto death ! Ill in the lustful riot 
Of misspent days, those precious pearls of time. 
Which I, with wanton and regardless hand. 
Flung on the dung-heaps of this wasteful world; 
But now, Xenares, well in the high hope 
Of Simeon's prayers and mine own penitence 
Eooted within the rich, most precious earth 
Of Christ's vast charity. 

Xenares. 

May't please thee, sir, 
To go within ? 

Thalarchus. 

No, Xenares — hear me : 
Of all my goods take inventory : pay 
What I may owe out of my fortune's wreck, 
Eeserving for thyself a moiety 
To keep thee from the fangs of beggary. 
What may remain, give to the poor. To-day 
I manumit thee : thou art free. I know 

71 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Thy worth and honest heart, and so repose 
My trust. I go from Antioch. 

Xenares. 

Indeed, 
My lord, thou'rt very ill. I pray thee — 



Thalarchus, 



Nay, 



Be not thus urgent. Hence I go forever, 

I've quitted me the burden of this world. 

The brave apparel of its swelling pride 

I here discard, resigning all its pomp. 

Its purfled show, and strutting pageantry. 

And I, who clothed me in its trumperies, 

And waxed on all its fustianed vanities 

As flaunting weeds upon the mucky earth, 

These many and gross years, pitiless 

Now scythe the rank and vicious growth, whose 

bane 
So long infected all the blood, and killed 
The tender shoots of virtue in the soul. 
Behold, Xenares, how the sober dawn. 
In ghostly vapours creeping up the east; 
Unmasks the glamour of the dying night. 
And on the sodden ashes of our feast. 
That flamed in furious riot this little while, 
Spreads pale and gray as ghastly death 

72 



The FEAST of THALAECHUS 

Upon the face of one who yields his soul. 

So pass the sudden heats of time, the lusts 

Of appetite, the hunger of possession, 

Ambition's passion, love's desire, — all, 

Yes, all that men, unrecking lower things 

By higher lights, set heart upon below, 

Mere bavin for the fiery tongue of change. 

Scarce kindled ere in ashes ! I've seen 

This night, Xenares, through high Heaven's 

mercy. 
That which has shaken all my soul and torn 
From out its ancient roots my tree of life 
To plant anew in other soil, with hope 
Of fruit celestial ! For now I know. 
My soul illumined by that kindly beam. 
The deep philosophy of poverty, 
The wealth of having naught, the precious gain 
Of self-surrender, riches infinite, 
Out of the nothingness of this base earth 
Transmuted in th' alembic of God's love ! 
'Tis this I seek. Farewell : I go, 
Xenares, and return no more. 

Xenares, 

My lord, my lord ! 



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